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Dairy Cattle Breed Associations

Michigan Milk Producers Association, Detroit

ABSTRACT

Cattle are not native to North America. Some were brought to what is now the United States by the early settlers. Historical references to cattle coming to the early colonies are more and more frequent from 1535 on. These imported animals and their descendants came to be generally known as "native cattle" and in 1860 they totaled 8,500,000. Starting about 1860–1865 there developed considerable interest in improved breeds of cattle. "Purebreds" were imported from Holland, the Channel Islands, Scotland, and Switzerland in increasing numbers during the last half of the 19th century.

Individual owners kept their own herds and breeding records. It became increasingly apparent, to those interested, that a central agency for keeping these records was most desirable.

Organization of Breed Associations

In the early days most of the improved cattle were owned by men of means and social standing. The men who founded the breed associations thought of them more as social organizations formed for the business of keeping and preserving records and the promotion of an individual breed.